With the ever growing online communities and reliance on the internet, it might make sense to say ‘Yes! You need a website’. Ask a web designer/developer for a website and that’s exactly what you’ll get. But do you really need it?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ‘Yes, everyone needs an online presence‘ but this does not have to be in the form of a whole website. So what are the alternatives?

Blogs:- A blog (short for WebLog) is a great content building site. You can get these for free from wordpress, blogger among others. A blog allows you to post articles like the one you’re reading now. They’re great if you’re a consultant with lots of advice like time-management, marketing etc, or in a constantly changing industry like accountancy or technology.

Network Stores:- If you sell products online, have a look at trading on eBay stores or Amazon. Both of these provide seller services for a small transaction fee. One of my clients receives about £2/3000 per month turnover through an eBay store.

Network Profiles:- Many people make do with networking profiles like Ecademy, Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn, Workology, and these work great, particularly for B2B and some B2C businesses. Spend the time making your profile stand out from the croud and socialise with the other members.

Directory listings:- These are a good quick-fix particularly for B2C’s, Plumbers, electricians, Taxi companies. They provide a good geographical listing and helpe people compare you to your competitors.

There are others but I feel these allow you to stay focussed on the business rather than the social aspect. If you feel I’ve missed any, feel free to add them into the comments below.

Taken from C|net Facebook Connect: For those who don’t like clicking… this is copied from the article:

Social network Facebook announced Friday the debut of Facebook Connect, a new technology for members to connect their profile data and authentication credentials to external Web sites. It makes the company the latest major Web site to embrace the concept of data portability.

The formal announcement was made through a post on Facebook’s developer blog by senior platform manager Dave Morin, who has been one of the company’s most visible evangelists in the developer community over the past year. Facebook Connect will launch within the next few weeks.

Through Facebook Connect, members will be able to use their Facebook identities across the Web–profile photos, names, photos, friends, groups, events, and other information. Facebook profile content, for example, could appear on other social sites, and Facebook event listings could theoretically connect with external event and invitation services.

Facebook will handle the authentication process, and while privacy controls have not been made clear, the company has stressed that user security will be a priority. And there’s reason to believe Facebook will be particularly careful: The company already partners with outside services to share data in its Beacon advertising program, and the PR missteps surrounding Beacon’s launch are something that Facebook likely does not want to repeat.

It’s a big move for the site. Until this point, Facebook has had a reputation for keeping its cards close to its chest–even banning the account of popular blogger Robert Scoble when he used a script to export his Facebook contact list to Plaxo. But Facebook has a representative in the Data Portability Workgroup, and executives have said that Facebook has wanted to bring its information outside the site eventually.

“These are just a few steps Facebook is taking to make the vision of data portability a reality for users worldwide,” Morin wrote in his blog post. “We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It’s about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.”

“We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It’s about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.”
–Dave Morin, Facebook senior platform manager

Last month, Facebook started partnering with other social sites to pull external data into Facebook’s “mini-feeds,” displaying user activity from the likes of Flickr and Yelp on Facebook profile pages.

No partner Web sites for Facebook Connect have been announced yet, but director of platform Ben Ling explained to CNET News.com that “there’s been a lot of partner interest.” One partner, however, was displayed in mockups on Facebook’s developer blog: social news site Digg.

The technical details also remain unannounced. “We’re not announcing the details of the partner integration today,” Ling said. “What we’re announcing at a high level is that we will have a program that’s built into partners large and small, and they will be able to access Facebook Connect.”

Facebook kick-started the social-networking developer platform craze when it launched the Facebook Platform a year ago. But on Thursday, bigger rival MySpace made a big move when it opened its own profile content to outside sites–in a sense the reverse of Facebook’s famous decision to welcome external developers onto its own site. Facebook representatives said Friday that there are now more than 350,000 developers from 225 countries developing for the platform, although one prominent programmer said earlier this week that he believes activity may be slowing.

Facebook has also held over 50 “developer garage” events in 10 countries, and Ling said that Facebook Connect will be discussed at future “garages.”

One Facebook insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said to CNET News.com that the project had been in the works for quite some time, and said the announcement wasn’t issued as a response to MySpace’s “Data Availability” project. “We actually think what they are up to is pretty cool.”

Representatives from MySpace were not immediately available for comment.

MySpace has partnered with the likes of eBay and Yahoo for Data Availability, which means that many of the Web’s biggest names are now warming up to the idea of social-network identity portability. It’s likely to be popular with users eager to quell the onset of “social fatigue” from too many logins and profiles, but privacy and security advocates may raise a red flag–as might advertisers, to whom Facebook’s walled-in user base was ideal for targeted marketing. Spreading that data across the Web could complicate matters on that front.

When you go to the cafe for a coffee… you wouldn’t email your clients or family about it would you? If you want 5 minutes peace, or are even bored and WANT a phone call… do you email people to tell them?

Introducing Twitter, another social networking platform. Simple but effective and allows you to do the above quite effectively. Below you’ll see my live feed.

Right now I can update my status on Ecademy, it will pass through to Twitter and then onto Facebook… now that’s true power! Graham Jones explains how to do this.

Is there a real use for this tool? In terms of online networking which is becoming increasingly popular with people of all ages and business sizes absolutely!In terms of instant advertising or even communicating with those people at home who share your living room who you don’t often get to see.

With real time updates, you could even have separate boxes with current status’ next to your staff on the company key members page. (Yes we can do this with more customisation than twitter themselves.) With the way today’s small or personal businesses work, if you’re not in, you’re out.

Follow me?

I’ve been nominated at the next chapter director in BNI Broadway. I feel honoured to be granted this opportunity. The current director told me that I’d need to choose my team… How was I supposed to do this?

Ultimately, I went on the first impressions I got from any BNI chapter, went through each stage of the BNI script methodically and came up with a winning team. All of whom accepted the role.

As a visitor, you enter the room. You’re greeted (or not) by a variety of people. I decided my visitor hosts need to not suffer from bad breath (I’m harsh) but should be friendly, well presented and speak on an Adult-Adult level. I’ll put them aside for the moment.

Ok, I’ve been ushered around the room talking to different people, I’m now armed with a stodgy fry-up and a cup of unbranded coffee and sat down next to some interesting people. The chapter director stands up and introduces various people around the room. This stage is harmless so we’ll skip through. Eventually the Education coordinator stands. (S)he is the first person so far to offer any real value to the meeting. I want an Education coordinator who will offer advice and information, not one that will shame and guilt the rest of the room for not bringing enough visitors.

Mental note: Education coordinator needs to be good at constructive critisism and equally friendly, knowledgable and well presented.

Everything is going well, I recite my 60 second speech and listen to everyone elses, I’ve decided on two people I’d like to speak to after the meeting.

Suddenly, the secretary/treasurer stands up and starts talking about money! Watching the reactions on the other visitor’s faces, I realise I’m not alone. The BNI script is quite pushy considering how well things had been going so far!

Mental note: Secretary/treasurer must be someone who appreciates BNI’s value already, someone who charges at least £1000 per average sale in their own business. The person I saw in one chapter obviously didn’t and looked almost ashamed for asking.

Not forgetting the dreaded MC position; Membership Coordinator. (S)he’s the one who got us here to start with, so he needs to be methodical, down to earth, constructive and goal orientated.

Working backwards, my chosen MC for our BNI chapter accepted on the spot. We discussed the Secretary/Treasurer and came up with two ideas. My first declined for his own reasons, but the second was over the moon.

Education coordinator, events coordinator and visitor hosts quickly followed.

We have a winning team and aim to wipe the floor with any other chapter in BNI by increasing membership and bringing Broadway back to it’s former glory.

Anyone for bowling?

Facebook, Ecademy, Myspace, Xing, LinkedIn, Bebo… and many more.

The generation of networking sites has been around for some time each appealing to it’s own genre of people… and I’ve been addicted to all of them at one time or another. Now, it’s Ecademy!

Ecademy, coupled with BNI now forms the main part of my business strategy. Ecademy is daunting to use for a beginner but it’s easy to focus on getting to grips with the control that grabs you the most and move forward one step at a time exploring each aspect. Ecademy has tools for blogging, messaging, watching educational videos, listing adverts and much much more. Ecademy is also loved by Google so anything you post is on Google within around 20 minutes!!! Unfortunately, it also drops off fairly quickly, so regular contributions are a must.

In three months of using the site, I’ve had 391 Ecademy people read my profile, 110 of them talked to me, and not too many were direct sales. I’ve found a great local businessman who wants us to work together and potentially share an office later in the year. I’ve found energetic people telling me how great I am, and I’ve had the opportunity to help a large number of people. I get to advertise any special offers and people do actually read them, and often this generates leads. I get to post general information/questions or just ask for advice, and at least 3 people reply with the right answer.

In these months, I’ve gained around 8 leads in total through Ecademy, and 2 good clients. I have a small network of people I could call for advice, including a copyright lawyer, graphic designers, marketeers, accountants and many more

Ecademy is mainly a paid-for service. But it’s cheap for what it gives to me and my business. The paid service means all the Internet loiterers aren’t involved.
Ecademy is a large, constantly changing site and Google loves it! This means a link from Ecademy to your website (on your profile, blogs, adverts etc etc etc) will boost your site through the rankings. You are rewarded for contributing!

What’s the catch with Ecademy? Occasionally you get someone trying to ’spam’ your inbox with direct and unwelcome sales literature. This has happened to me and still I turned them into a valuable contact and potential future lead.

Ecademy, like all forms of networking does of course need you to work at it, work doesn’t fall into your lap without giving some time and effort to it. But Ecademy works. You can put as much or as little effort in as you like. You can also gain as many or few leads as you like. Get onto Ecademy Now and see what I mean!!!!

Contact me if you want help with Ecademy or any other part of your online marketing strategy, including web design, Google rankings or general internet advice.

Also see my Ecademy HTML Cheat Sheet - Download the cheatsheet to print and help you add some html styles to your profile, blogs and Marketplace listings.

Or upload images for use on ecademy (and even get the code! upload Ecademy images)

Ecademy Rocks!!! I dare you to try not making some good contacts!